The Chair of Peter

   January 18 is the date for the feast of St. Peter's Chair.  How odd, you might say, to celebrate a chair?
The Chair exists, and is a symbol of the authority of Peter. Christ, as is noted in my very old St. Andrew's Missal, "communicates His divine power to a man, for after the Incarnation, it is by human intermediaries that God wills normally to establish His dealings with us. The man whom Jesus constitutes 'Prince of souls' and 'on whom He builds His Church' (Gospel of Matthew, 16: 18-19) is St. Peter. As Vicar of Christ he will sit in the chair once occupied by Jesus and will hold in his hands the keys as symbol of supreme authority." Regarding the chair.  In St. Matthew's Gospel 23: 2-4, he notes that the scribes and the Parisees sat on the chair of Moses.  The chair of Peter replaces that of Moses in the Old Testament.

   The Epistle of today's Mass is 1 Peter 1: 1-7. It is the beginning of the first letter of St. Peter. All his letters bear the mark of his primacy. The feast today is to honor that primacy and the honor attached to the physical chair, preserved in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

   Matthew 16:18 "Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will buld my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In verse 19, "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven."  Christ tells Peter to strengthen his brethren in Luke 22:32, and Peter becomes first "shepherd" of His Church in John 21: 15-17, "Feed my lambs...Feed my sheep."

   Through the New Testament scriptures we find Peter mentioned first.  Matthew 10: 2-4, "And the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon who is called Peter....."   Since Andrew, not Peter, was the first to follow Our Lord,  the first obviously has a different meaning.

   The earliest Church Fathers, throughout the first three centuries of its existence recognized the primacy of Peter and his successors.  St. Ignatius, on his way to martyrdom in the year 107 A.D., was first to call christians "Catholic," meaning universal.  He wrote, "All of you, obey your bishops as Jesus Christ obeyed the Father, and obey the priesthood as you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons also, as God commands. Apart from the bishop, let no one do anything of what pertains to the Church. The only true Eucharist is the one performed by the bishop or by him whom the bishop has appointed. Wherever the bishop is, there must be the congregation, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
Ignatius was ordained by Peter and heard the Apostle John. This was one who lived at the same time as Apostles and heard them firsthand. There was already a hierarchy as seen by his referencing bishops, priests, deacons.

Listed below are a few other quotes from early Church Fathers.

   Pope Clement I, 96 A.D., third Pope after Peter, also martyred: "Our apostles, too, were given to understand by our Lord Jesus Christ that the office of the bishop would give rise to intrigues. For this reason, equipped as they were with perfect foreknowledge, they appointed the men mentioned before, and afterwards laid down a rule once for all to this effect: when these men die, other approved men shall succeed to their sacred ministry."

Cyprian, circ  246 A.D.: "On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair."

Origen, circ 216 A.D.: "When the Chief Authority as regards the feeding of the shep was delivered to Peter; and on him, as on earth, the Church was founded; of no other virtue was the confession required, than that of love."

Tertullian, circa 200-220 A.D.: "For if you think heaven is still closed, remember that the Lord left here the keys thereof to Peter, and through him to the Church; which keys every one that is here questioned and confesses, shall carry with him."

Cyril of Jerusalem, circa 363 A.D. "And all being silent (for it was beyond man to learn) Peter, the Foremost of the Apostles, and Chief Herald of the Church, not using language of his own finding, nor persuaded by human reasoning, but having his mind enlightened from the Father, says to Him, 'Thou art the Chirst,' not simply that, but, 'the Son of the living God.' And a blessing follows the speech."

Again, from Clement I, third after Peter, only 63 years after the death and resurrection of Our Lord: "The Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them that are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace, from Almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied. Owing to the suddenly bursting and rapidly succeeding calamities and untoward experiences that have befallen us, we have been somewhat tardy; we think, in giving our attention to the subjects of dispute in your community, beloved...Receive our counsel, and ye shall have no occasion of regret..."  Rome is the seat (chair) of the Church.

Augustine, circa 400 A.D.: "I am held in the communion of the Catholic Church by...the succession of priests from the very Chair of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, committed his sheep to be fed, even to the present Episcopate."

St. John Chrysostom, 387 A.D., great Doctor of the Eastern Church (Antioch): "This is also one privilege of our city, that it received in the beginning for its teacher the chief of the Apostles. for it was befitting that city which, before the rest of the world, was crowned with the name of christian, should receive as shepherd the first of the Apostles. but, after having had him as our teacher, we did not retain him, but surrendered him to Imperial Rome."

                 Pope Benedict XVI is the 265th Pope to occupy the Chair of Peter, Peter being the first.

   Quotes from the Fathers were taken from a book I recommend, and which uses the Old and New Testaments to define and explain the papacy.  It is The Biblical Basis for the Papacy by John Salza.